Family Visit

My brother and his family have come down to Orlando for their vacation. Today they drove here and spent the afternoon with me. It was great to see them all.

I had told them I wanted to take them to the Space Walk Hall of Fame museum. My brother thought I'd lost my mind when I told him to turn into a mall and park. "I thought we were going to a museum," he said.

"The museum's in the mall," I replied. "Just park; you'll see."

We went inside and walked towards the museum when I noticed the gates were down. I thought I'd messed up the plan and the museum was closed. It wasn't; it just didn't open for another 30 minutes.

On the way to the museum, we had passed an Italian restuarant that I had commented was good. Rob said, "Well, we might as well have some lunch while we wait."

So, we went in and had french fries and cheese pizza. Then we went to the museum.

I expected my nephew, Alex, to be ecstatic. He is, after all, a young boy. He enjoyed it, but he showed his share of my brother's blood anyway. No less than 10 minutes into the visit, he started asking, "Are we done yet?" Just like Rob--always impatient and ready to move on to the next thing. I remember when my family would go to Busch Gardens, Rob was always ready to move off on his own. He'd weave through the crowds like the people weren't even really there. And I learned to weave through just like him. As soon as we were in the park, we were gone. Alex will be just like that.

But the one who surprised me with how much she enjoyed it was my neice, Emily. She asked good questions, and her mind, like mine, went off into fanciful places. She has a wonderful imagination, and I look forward to seeing the places she will go with it.

My brother and I had been discussing movies while we ate, and I mentioned there was a cinema in the mall as well. When we finished eating, he went down and checked show times for the new "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" with Johnny Depp. We'd have plenty of time to look around in the museum before the next showing.

So after we'd seen everything we could in the museum, we went down and took in the movie. It was very different. Emily sat next to me. She seemed a little disturbed a couple of times and I asked if she was OK, but she always said yes.

When it was done, we all came back to my apartment, but they couldn't stay for long after that. Rob and Alex are both allergic to cats, and no matter how clean you are, they start puffing up and getting scratchy drippy before long. Today was no different. So, after a while, they said good night. On Wednesday, I'm taking a vacation day and joining them at Animal Kingdom. I'm looking forward to that. I love to watch the kids enjoy themselves, but I also love to see the animals. I think I'll get up very early and had out to Orland to meet them. The animals go into the shade once the day heats up, and down here that doesn't happens very early.